September 3rd: Nitzavim
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Sometimes, poetry is evocative, and other times it can obscure. Sometimes, it can do both and give us an example of the multivalent meanings in Torah.
The phrase in question is,
כִּי הוּא חַיֶּיךָ וְאֹרֶךְ יָמֶיךָ
“Ki hu chayecha v’orech yamecha.”
Older translations render it literally: “your life and the length of your days.” The King James Version sees God as the subject: “He is thy life and the length of thy days,” whereas the Jewish Publication Society 1917 edition sees a godly life/the mitzvot as the subject: “That is thy life and the length of thy days.”
This poetic Hebrew phrase comes from our Torah portion this week, Deuteronomy 30.19-20, but the New Jewish Publication Society version (1962 and 1967) gives it a much more practical translation:
“I call heaven and earth to witness this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life—that you and your descendants would live—by loving the Lord your God, heeding the Divine commands, and holding fast to God. Ki hu chayecha v’orech yamecha. For thereby you shall have life and shall long endure upon the soil that the Lord swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them.”
The passage is speaking of the covenantal relationship which is a frequent theme in Deuteronomy: Obedience to the Divine Will results in earthly success and blessings, whereas disobedience results in all kinds of calamities. The phrase in question is simply a reminder of these consequences. When you follow the rules, “You shall thereby have life and long endure…”
Life and prosperity are clearly important, and, to this extent, the reminder is much appreciated. However, there is something deeper in the older translation—a deeper meaning to a contractual phrase. When we speak of Torah (a godly life and cleaving to God through the mitzvot) as “the life and the length of our days,” we reference meaningfulness in life, a realm explored and developed in Rabbinic Judaism. Yes, we want life, but we also want a sense of connection to God, a spiritual sense of purpose and love.
Thus it should be no surprise that our contractual phrase from Deuteronomy finds its way into a Rabbinic prayer that combines Torah and love—or, rather, that sees Torah as God’s loving gift to us:
“With eternal love do You love Your people Israel. Torah and mitzvot, laws and precepts have You taught us. Therefore, O Lord our God, when we lie down and when we rise up, we shall meditate on Your laws and rejoice in the words of Your Torah and mitzvot forever. They are the life and the length of our days, and we will think about them both day and night. May Your love never leave us.”
(Ahavat Olam, second benediction of the Shema and Its Blessings, Evening Service)
This sensibility of Torah being the essence of our lives is the point of an ancient story about Rabbi Akiva. During the years of the Hadrianic Persecutions (132-135 CE), the Romans forbade teaching Torah. “One day, the apostate Pappos ben Yehuda encountered Rabbi Akiva—who was convening assemblies in public and engaging in Torah study. Pappos said to him, Akiva, are you not afraid of the Roman Empire? Rabbi Akiva answered him with a parable: To what can this be compared? It is like a fox walking along a riverbank when he sees fish gathering and fleeing from place to place. The fox said to them: From what are you fleeing? They said to him: We are fleeing the nets that people cast upon us. He said to them: If you come up onto dry land, we can reside together just as my ancestors resided with your ancestors? The fish said to him: You are the one of whom they say, he is the cleverest of animals. But you are not clever; you are a fool. If we are afraid in the water, our natural habitat which gives us life, then we will be more in danger in a habitat that causes our death. So too, we Jews. We sit and engage in Torah study, about which it is written, “For that is your life and the length of your days.” We fear the empire to this extent: if we proceed to sit idle from Torah study—its abandonment being a habitat that will cause our death, all the morso will we fear the Roman Empire.” (Talmud, Berachot 61b)
Whether we study Torah frequently or only on occasion, we always have the opportunity to connect with the Holy One when we engage in leaning and living the mitzvot. As we read:
הֵם חַיֵּֽינוּ וְאֹֽרֶךְ יָמֵֽינוּ
“The words of Torah are the life and the length of our days.”